Mahjong Tiles: Let The Game Begin!

Tile games have always shared an important part of history. They have been with us for centuries but it is now only that they have gained such an enormous popularity. With games like Mahjong, the tile style puzzling has become prominent, where gameplay itself is about matching tiles and winning the game. Actually, Mahjong is an ancient Chinese game that requires skill, intelligence, estimation and luck to be a winner. And, the most important part of the game is its tiles, which are perfectly named as Mahjong tiles. The growing popularity of this interesting time-pass has given rise to its many versions today and now one can play it in the Chinese, Japanese or American style with different rules but yes the basic game of the “Four Winds” is the same.

The set of these Mahjong tiles usually differs from place to place, consisting of at least 136 tiles or most commonly 144. But in the case of the United States or Southeast Asia, the tile count is more and is usually in the form of flowers or jokers. There are also blank tiles in some sets which can be used in place of damaged or missing tiles and are referred to as mahjong replacement tiles.

Let’s take a closer look at how these Mahjong tiles actually work:

These tiles can be organized into several categories, which represent Suited Tiles, Honor Tiles, Flower Tiles and Joker Tiles.

•    Coming over to the Suited Tiles first, these consist of a suit and a rank. There are three money-based suits with ranks between one to nine; four tiles of each rank and suit combination. This forms 36 tiles in a suit and total of 108 suited tiles. Each suit is given a specific name; circle suit, which is represented by a series of circles, the bamboo suit is described with outlines of sticks, and the character suit depicts the Chinese characters.
•    A brief about Honor Tiles, They neither have a rank nor a suit but they too are formed into melds like suited tiles. These tiles are divided into four Wind Tiles and three Dragon Tiles, which are further quadruplicated into 16 Wind Tiles and 12 Dragon Tiles for 28 Honor Tiles.
•    Let’s talk about Flower Tiles now, they are not used in melds and when drawn, they are kept aside. The player can use it again but from the dead wall. These tiles are used in the form of quartets; each containing four unique tiles numbered from 1 to 4 or can be uniquely labeled. They come in flowers with many colors.
•    Last but not the least is the Mahjong Joker Tiles these are used as a replacement for any suited or honor tile for putting together a hand subject to local restrictions.

All these mahjong tiles can be bought in ivory, plastic, semi-wooden or wooden forms with beautiful designing. The best part is even if you lose some of your tiles or they get damaged, you can continue your game by shopping for mahjong replacement tiles. So, this game will never let your excitement to die!